The Past and Pending
by Clamowamo
Summary: A heist and a stand off with the Black Organization leaves those involved wondering how far they'd go to protect those that they love. MKDC.


I think after so long of trying to find just the right way to go about doing this (there have been three to five tries so far, I've hated them all) I think I may have just gotten this right. I'm really not used to doing drama/action/mystery/fluff writing, or at least posting it, so give me a few chapters to see if I can actually go through with this. Humor/Goofiness is much easier to write decently.

I'm hoping this will bounce around _a lot_, if it doesn't I'll be kind of sad. It's filled with tons of flashbacks and explanations. The present time at which this fic is running is January of 2000 and begins two weeks after file 500-504, just so I can have an anchor point. Unless otherwise indicated, where the characters speak English will be in between little hyphens for clarity, since the FBI characters take a a nice chunk of the spotlight. And so without further ado, I bring the disclaimer. (Fic comes after, promise.)

These characters are property of Aoyama Goshou, whom I congratulate on his recent marriage to Takayama Minami. (Yes, Aoyama-sensei married Conan's seiyuu. I always knew he was committed to his work, but now he's gone and married Conan. Oh dear god.)

**The Past and Pending**: Hospital Food.

Jodie Sterling inspected the a piece an anonymous piece of fruit that, until recently, was suspended in a cup of strawberry Jell-O that had been served by the hospital's cafeteria. It could've been a pineapple, but it had been soaked so long in red goo that it had camouflaged with the rest of the dessert. It even tasted more like artificial strawberry than a pineapple, and the texture was rather mushy.

There was something universally unappealing about any food served in a hospital, even coming from a vending machine. Maybe it was the stench of sterilized _everything_ and death that lurched and devoured even the simplest pleasures in everything. Or maybe it was just she hated strawberry Jell-O, but ate it every damn time she found it in a hospital. It _was_ cheap after all.

She frowned, then tossed the offending cup into the trash can at her left, only to cast a longing glance at a young couple leaving the hospital with a newborn baby. There are things that every woman wants, even if she won't admit it. Babies, a husband, a house... it's all there in the big book of _Dreams Unattainable to Workaholics: For Women_. She was nearing 29 years old and married to her job.

It's not like there hadn't been offers; She dated (occasionally), had a few long-term serious relationships, and co-workers often tried to sell her off to their sons (Even James was hard-pressed in getting Jodie to consider the idea of dating his son.) Occasionally she would seriously consider the idea of getting married, being twenty-eight and single held a stigma similar to the one carried by a homeless man begging for change.

Sometimes she wondered what her parents would think of it. And suddenly 28 didn't feel that old anymore, and the FBI was the only husband she would ever need until Sharon Vineyard was wearing an orange jumpsuit. The thought in itself made her smile as she pushed her father's glassed further up her nose. And suddenly the sound of quick-paced feet coming towards her made her look up.

"Jodie! Jodie!" It was Fredrick Schroeder, running so fast that the blue windbreaker he always wore flew behind him like a cape. Fredrick had a look of shock and glee on his plain face. "-She's awake!-"

Jodie stared at him for a moment, utterly flabbergasted. And then took off at a full sprint to the room of newscaster/active Black Organization member Mizunashi Rena.

* * *

Although he knew he should probably be preparing for the most recent Kid heist, Nakmori found himself at his daughter's culture festival. After all, it was almost time for her graduation, and he'd find himself spending less and less time with her ('not that you spend much time with her now,' a twinge of guilt spoke up meekly from the depths of his stomach) once she started college.

Now he was watching from across the room as Aoko was assisted by her classmates in putting on a rather goofy cat costumes. He couldn't help but look on with a sense of something like deja vu, like a memory that was trying to resurface itself...

But a sudden click followed by a winding sound distracted him. Thinking it over for a moment, he came to only one conclusion about the sound: "You're the only person on this earth who would sneak up and want a picture of my ugly mug, Natsuko-chan." He turned and looked to the woman at his right, who held a bulky SLR camera that had just taken his picture. She smiled warmly, letting the camera dangle around her neck.

"Ginzo-kun, you're not even in a suit. Such a rare thing to see you away from screaming like an enraged idiot." She raised an eyebrow to give him a mischievous look.

He glared back. "How is it that you sound more like your husband every time I see you?"

"Because he," she pointed to her son, who was dancing around Aoko in the cat suit in an attempt to confuse her, "is every bit like him. But I'm sure you know that already.."

She winked. He stared deadpanned back at her, and opened his mouth to retort but Aoko's roar stopped him. "#$! KAITO!"

And a mop had appeared miraculously in her hands (paws?) and she had taken chase of her friend. The two parents weakly admonished their children, knowing there would be no way to stop them now. They looked on defeated, but secretly enjoying it just a tad.

"Take a picture." Nakamori murmured to her. "C'mon, how much longer will we get to see them like this?"

Quickly adjusting the shutter speed, Kuroba Natsuko brought the camera to her eye and fiddled with the focus as they ran around, in an attempt to get a good shot. What she would be left with after looking at the developed film was a cat with a mop, who had just swung the mop at where her son's feet were a millisecond before hand. Kaito was captured midair, with a carefree grin on his face.

Kaito flipped backwards over a chair someone had left in the middle of the room while adding decorations to the ceiling, but Aoko had missed it completely and went tumbling to the floor, the head of her cat costume now rolled across the tile like a tumbleweed.

She yelped loudly, and Kaito looked back concerned and ran to her. "Crap, Aoko! I thought you saw that!"  
"How the #$! could I see anything in that #$!ing costume!"

(Natsuko smirked, noting to Nakamori that she had her mother's eyes and her father's mouth.)

"Here, let me help you up." he extended a hand, which was only to be swatted away as Aoko insisted that she didn't need his help. Only to stand and yelp, leaning on the offending chair for support.

"Look," Kaito said, the slightest twinge of guilt in his voice. "You hurt yourself. C'mon, get out of that costume. _I'll_ be the cat if you want."

"No! I'll be fine!" He extended an arm to unzip the back, only to be rejected by her again. "Don't touch me!"

Kaito could be stubborn too, of course, and the cat costume was quickly unzipped and allowed to lay in a pile at her feet. "It was too big for you anyway." he mutter, grinning back at her. She took a step forward to hit him, only to yelp again.

"..."

"You can't walk, can you?"

"I _can!_ It just... hurts to."

"Here." he stated, dodging for her so quick she could barely see him. And before she knew what was happening she found herself being carried on his back. "I'll carry you."

(_CLICK.. whirrrrrrrr..._ "Oh that'll turn out really cute." Natsuko muttered gleefully.)

"...But if you're going to carry me, then who will be the cat?" she asked, trying her best to ignore the blush that had formed on both their cheeks.

And as if it were a sign from God, an oddly accented voice spoke up from the door of their classroom. "What's going on?" Hakuba Saguru looked around curiously, then horrified to see Kuroba grinning at him with Aoko on his back.

"...What?"

_

* * *

_

_The woman tucked her short blond hair behind one ear, and smiled at her two young subordinates. They stared back impassively, shoulder to shoulder on the green couch which faced her. _

_"Your hair has gotten longer since I last saw you two. Wonderful." She smiled demurely at them, removing a photograph from her purse. In his memory now, the photo he stared at was blank and white, but the darker haired boy on the couch saw something behind the blankness that he couldn't now. Those raised as efficient killing machines did not remember those that they had slain: not their faces, not their names. _

_"Well, could you two kill him? And get away with it? This man has guards around him at all times, it could be very dangerous for such young children..."_

_The black haired one laughed at her concern with his head titled downward, and then suddenly a menacing green eye gazed into hers through blinds of wavy black bangs. "Don't treat me like a child, you crazy bitch. I could do this job on my own." He glanced to his blond haired 'brother' who grinned maniacally back at him. _

_She gave a smile filled with pride. Children grow up so fast..._

**_bzzzzttt... bzzzzttt..._**

The man at the desk drew his attention back to the present, glancing to the phone which was vibrating next to a stack of forms and manila envelopes. Before choosing to pick it up, he gave a quick tug at the cap on his head, as if trying to cover up what he was thinking about.

"What?"

"That's a nice way to answer the phone," his partner stated deadpanned and unamused.

"Who gives a shit? It's just you. What d'ya want anyway? I'm busy."

He heard a frustrated sigh through the phone, the woman muttered something under her breath that he didn't quite catch. "We need your assistance at the hospital. Immediately."

He leaned back in his chair and resting his feet on a pile of paperwork, seemingly deflating in his chair. "Why should I? There's a ton of other things I could be doin' then watching some vegetable while you go run some stupid little errand."

"Shuu, she's awake. And we've been questioning her all day and she hasn't said _anything!_ The doctor's say her cognitive functions are fine, but she won't even tell us what her name is."

"And how the hell will _I_ make any difference?"

"Just... _please!_ You might be able to better understand her or something."

"..."

"Ok, maybe not. But could you just come down here? James is here and so is half our unit..."

"Look, I'll be there in fifteen minutes, but stop whining like an idiot."  
"Thank y-_beep_" before she could even finish he hung up, growling and muttering phrases along the lines of, "...codependent pain-in-the-ass slave driver..."

_

* * *

_

Fifteen minutes and an unprecedented amount of cursing later, Hakuba Saguru was finally wrestled into the cat costume. He was currently sulking, sans the cat's head, next to Aoko and Kaito, much to his grinning adversary's delight. What in the hell had incensed him to not punch Kuroba as soon as the idea of him wearing this... thing... was suggested?

"Thank you, Hakuba-kun!" a feminine voice cried from atop Kuroba's back. "I was going to have Kaito do it, but since it was his fault..." she glared at her friend with her face next to his, "I thought I'd have him make it up to me."

Oh, that was it. Females seemed to have a certain power over males to, willingly on the victim's part, put them in horribly uncomfortable situations. And making it all the more frustrating was that one of the few females he really liked was currently draped over the back of his greatest rival. He sighed irritably, noting how horrible today was going to be.

"Oooh, your aura looks a little _green_ today, Hakuba-kun." Apparently someone _else_ had noticed too, and that someone's arm was draped haphazardly across his shoulders. "I wonder why...?"

_That_ was definitely more of a statement than a question and only annoyed him even more. "Koizumi," he said, simply to acknowledge her.

"The cat costume is very appealing Hakuba-kun, the girls are going crazy over how adorable you look," she smiled at him, stroking a finger down his cheek. He pulled back sharply in discomfort. "Or, most of them anyway," and after giving a side glance to Kaito and Aoko, sauntered off to let herself be adored by her more attentive fans.

A half hour later, Akai finally managed to arrive at the hospital. Only, of course, to be berated by his partner for being fifteen minutes late. And as she had stated over the phone, Mizunashi-san was awake and eerily quiet.

He sat across on a chair on the end of the bed, considering his plan of attack.

"I know it's gotta be nerve racking to have thirty different people coming in here everyday to harass information out of you," he muttered, while amusing himself by sharpening a rather lengthy switchblade that he kept in his boots. He found that the metal-on-metal grinding sound was just enough to drive anyone crazy after a while.

"But ya know, there are other things we could be doin' too. I'd rather not be here, honestly." He locked eyes with the woman on the bed, cocking his head just slightly to the side. "It's kind of confusing... you know, not knowing who to trust..." _schwing! _(She flinched slightly. He noticed people tended to do that if they looked in his eyes in these kinds of situations.)

"I've danced with death more times than I count... ...I've got no family... all the people I've loved are dead... (_schwing!_) All I've got really are those people who keep coming in here and bugging the shit out of you.

"As someone who doesn't trust the human race in general, (_schwing!_) I think I'd trust my life with those guy's out there. Hell, I'd entrust anyone's life to them. A lot of them have wives and kids, and they just up and left to come here and do this. (_schwing!_)"

The man paused, shifting in his seat. "You don't mind if I put my feet up on the bed, do ya?" No answer. "Alright, fine then." With his feet up, he seemed to relax a little more.

"And I know you're probably thinkin', 'How the hell do these guys know what they're saying?' I can tell you, they _don't_. (_schwing!_) I've been in your situation before, it's kind of like you're the dangling rope in a game of Tug-of-War, right? (_schwing!_)

"But if you'd really trust those bastards more than us, you're a damned idiot. (_schwing!_) You know what they're worrying about with your situation right now! It's not whether or not you're OK, or if you're treated well (**_schwing!_**), but if you're going to expose them. They don't give a shit about you.

"All you are is a tool, you can be thrown out and replaced at anytime."

He sighed, though it sounded more like a grumbling-muttering noise, and shifted in his seat again. "Look, alright, no one can _ask_ you to do this. (_schwing!_) You've got to _want_ to, and I understand that all too well myself. There's probably someone you're protecting right? It's sad that they have to use a sibling or a lover to control you... but... (...schwing...)"

Standing up, he folded the switchblade with a trained flick of his wrist. "But... there are going to be _a lot_ of people killed just for that person. Help one life... or help many. It's your call, we can't make it for you. But.. if you talk... we have a chance of getting both you and that person out of harm's way... even if you do spend some time in prison for it..."

He trailed off, looking at the knife's handle without really looking.

"Whatever. Doesn't really concern me either way."

And he left, being sure to turn the light off. The woman blinked dazedly in the dark, feeling the slightest bit of surprise that she was still alive.

Although Kaito had been banned from doing magic this year after last year's exploding rose trick (they were still finding dried up petals in the oddest of places), he had still gone around pulling flowers and coins and candies from no where and giving them to people. All with Aoko on his back, who was still trying her best to see how he was doing it.

And inside his costume, Hakuba sulked while Nakamori looked on with slight amusement, noting to himself how much he'd love the task force to see this. The woman next to him snickered softly, getting his attention.

"What?"

"Oh," the smirk grew into a small smile, "it's like _your_ third year culture festival."

"..."

"You don't remember, do you?" he shook his head. "Ah well, I remember Harumi-san was supposed to wear a panda costume... but it was too big so you had to end up wearing it and you were pouting all day..."

_"Damn, Nakamori looks mad." a boy said, adjusting the glasses on his face. "I think he may explode at any second..."_

_The boy next to him, who could have been his twin, laughed. "And with Harumi doting over him like that, he's just getting more fussy. Look at him go... see, he just swatted her hand away."_

_"How long do you give him until he explodes?"_

_The scruffy looking one thought it over, and then smirked. "'bout two seconds..." turnings his attention away from the boy next to him and over to his panda suited friend, he raised his voice. "Oh Ginzo-chan!"_

_The panda bear looked in his direction and audibly growled, the growling turned to shouting rather unrepeatable phrases as his friend ripped the head from the panda bear costume, to reveal a very angry and red faced teenage boy. "Harumi-chan, don't you think Ginzo-chan is just like a panda bear? He look so cute, but his personality's not really cute at all."_

_"Kuroba..." he warned, just as he pulled his fist back..._

_CLICK... whirrrrrrrr... _

_Only to stop and look at a girl who stood with a camera, in a uniform that definitely wasn't from Ekoda._

_"Natsuko! You made it! Hey, d'ya want us to pose?" his friend glared at him, he just smiled back, unphased. "C'mon, Yuusaku too! We'll get the whole crew in! C'mon, c'mon!" he jumped up and down hyper actively, urging them to hurry up._

_Quickly everyone arranged themselves, mostly for fear of their friend growing more annoying. Left imprinted on the film was a happily smiling person, an indifferent face, an angry snarl and joyful grin. A perfect representation of their personalities. _

_"Natsuko-chan, give me a copy of that, please!" Harumi smiled as she pulled a piece of her tasseled chin length hair behind her ears._

_"Of course! Nakamori-san...?"_

_He grumbled in response, turning towards Harumi while Toichi half-skipped to Natsuko, pulling a rose from no where and giving it to her. She took it with a lopsided smile, sticking it behind her ear. "Ahh, thank you. But Godzilla was already handing out little paper roses." She smirked, bringing a fake red rose into view that clashed with his real white one._

_"Godzilla...?" he said hesitantly with a figurative light bulb illuminating above his head. "Where?"_

_"Umm... I think the floor below this. Why?"_

_He chuckled, causing his girlfriend to draw back at its sinister sound. "Ok, I'll be right back!"_

_"Wait, what are you--" she stopped, realizing he was no longer there. _

"...and then he ran back in with the Godzilla costume on and you two had a boxing match." she smirked up at him. "You tied."

"...I completely forgot about that. Wouldn't it be funny if..." Nakamori Ginzo paused, considering something that made his eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline. His friend's widow got the idea and her smile grew even more.

"I think I saw a class room on the second floor where _all_ the students were dressed in animal costumes. I doubt one of them would mind shedding their new skin for a while..." she raised an eyebrow, and he lowered one of his as to accept the challenge.

"Alright," he turned his attention towards the boy carrying his daughter, signaling him over. "Kaito-kun, could you come here for a second..."

* * *

Somewhere across town, a young boy had managed to find time to make a phone call. Being a child, after all, is very time consuming. Between playing with his friends, the test over 30 kanji characters tomorrow, appeasing his caretaker with his little boy charm and solving case after case for someone twice his actual age, it really was hard to find time to make one call.

"Oi, Kudo!" a distinctly kansai accented voice echoed in his head.

"About time. If you were working a case or something I could call back at a better time.."

"Nah, I just had to get away from 'Zuha," the boy ran a hand through his bangs, "I swear she _never leaves!_"

The Tokyo detective smothered a snort, wondering just how much he would really want her to leave at all. The guy was about as dense as lead when it came to even his own feelings. "I just wanted to tell you not to worry about hotels or anything. Sonoko's father wants us to stay at one of their condos by the museum. Honestly, I think Sonoko just wants a slumber party, doesn't have anything to do with the heist."

"Nah, that's fine. My parents are insisting on coming anyway. Plus that Suzuki girl kind of weirds me out sometimes."

The child nodded his head in agreement, although the other party couldn't see it. "She's a little... straight foreward," the boy twisted his mouth in contemplation. "That's probably why Kaitou Kid keeps robbing from her family. I can think of one or two occasions she's expressed her fondness for the son of a-" and suddenly Hattori Heiji heard doors being slammed and smothered voices on the other end of the phone.

And just as suddenly he was talking to an entirely different person. "OK Heiji-niichan! I'll tell them!" and the phone hung up, leaving the Osakan staring at his cell phone in mild astonishment.

* * *

It was midnight when Jodie had finally given up for the day, if the newscaster could survive one of her partner's pep talks, then _she_ certainly had no hope of successfully dragging anything from her. Frankly, Shuu could even make her uncomfortable in any kind of questioning. It wasn't how he asked questions, it wasn't _what_ he asked. He wasn't the type who was good with words, period.

No, it was how he _looked_ at you. Eyes so cold and pitiless, they would have your stomach sinking into the souls of your feet. A gaze so frightening, you just _knew_ he would walk straight through you without reasonable cause or hesitation to obtain his goals. He had the eyes of a killer.

...but he also had an astonishing sense of justice and could be very kind when he could be bothered to waste the energy. (Jodie recalled several instances of him buying random, and _expensive_, gifts for his ex-girlfriend. Though the few times he talked about her, his partner had pieced together that the girl was definitely bi-polar or schizophrenic or _something._) Akai Shuichi wasn't a killer anymore, Jodie knew that. He was just as dedicated to work as she was _and_ an excellent bodyguard _and_ even better at the job than she was. Jodie was fine with that, she would never have wanted what gave Shuu such an understanding for their queries.

And now with the FBI's interrogation weapon proved useless, Jodie was left searching fervently through the contacts in her cell phone for a secret weapon. The blond came across the name and paused, slowly thinking her options over. A loud knock at the door caused her head to jerk up in guilt. "Come in."

Her boss and father figure opened the door, causing her to breath a sigh of relief. "Good, it's only you."

"Almost everyone's left the office already. Except for the night guards, Akai, and the two of us." The FBI's center of operations was currently located in a run down (from the outside anyway, inside it was filled with guards, and high tech security equipment and computers and offices) apartment tenement towards the northeast end of Tokyo.

James Bishop eyed the woman with a certain sense of suspicion, "Is there anyone you're hiding from?"

"You could say that..." she turned on her cellphone screen's back light, holding it up for James to see. He squinted, then raised his chin in understanding.

"I see..."

She nodded. "I can't think of anyone else... unless we call in back up from the states, which would take weeks of paperwork alone and still be ineffective. But..."

The man's grayed mustache twitched, "Akai has never exactly said what happened between the two of them, but I get the feeling it would definitely be explosive if they met..."  
"He's told me he wants nothing to do with this girl," she frowned into the phone deep in thought, as if it were a magic eight ball that'd give her the answers. "But... who else do we have?"

With her boss' silence came all the answers she needed, and the slightest amount of courage to press the talk button. The phone rang several times and a groggy male voice answered, "Moshi moshi?"

Jodie swallowed and shifted the phone to her other ear, "Hi, Agasa Hiroshi? This is Jodie Sterling with the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"..."

"Mouri-chan's old English teacher, we've met before."

There was a sudden sputter of recognition on the other line, "Oh Jodie-san!"

"Yes, sorry for calling so late, but there is something I'd like to ask of you. Well, not you _exactly_, but... what time will Ai-chan be getting home from school?"

"Ai-kun," he corrected before answering the question at hand, "Ai-kun usually comes home around 3:30. Why? Is there a problem?"  
The woman smiled lopsidedly at his worried tones, "No, well.. not exactly. It's nothing that directly involves her. I would just like to ask a favor... Is it fine if I stop by around 3 or 4?"

"I don't," the man interrupted his own words with a jaw breaking yawn, "see why not." (and the door flung open to leave Jodie and James giving guilt ridden looks to their newest company.)

"Alright," Jodie drawled, carefully picking her words. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

She turned off her phone as a solitary eyebrow slid up her partner's face in curiosity. "Eh? Who was that?"

"Plumber," she stated with a quickness that caused him to flash a more quizzical expression. "Kitchen sink has been clogged for _weeks_."

"I thought your land lord took care of that kind of crap."

"Which is exactly why I have to call a plumber! Seriously, they think that just because I'm American I can unclog a drain!" she added a forced and awkward chuckle.

Her partner's quizzical look turned to one of bafflement at the non sequitur statement and he shook his head, as to dislodge any confusion. "Well, I was just leaving... if any of you would like a ride."

They both shook their heads, he shrugged. "Alright then, see ya in the morning."

He left, the two stared her office door. The man turned to his subordinate, his expression shifted to accommodate his amusement. "Smooth."

The blond smirked back at him, it was too late to come up with any verbal comeback. "Well, since I've lost my ride for the evening... would you mind driving me to my apartment?" before he could even answer, her purse was in his hands and she was leaving. "Sure you would."

He grumbled, wondering why he had ever agreed to her demands from twenty years ago.

**

* * *

**

**Author's Notes:** The relationships in the last flashback might be really confusing. There's a lot of stuff I'd _love_ to cover, but it may just have to be in a different fic because there is no room for it here. And if I don't get into the relationships of the Toichi-Ginzo flashbacks, I'll make sure and point it out later in another author's note.

Akai's kind of... I don't know. I like to play with his character. Of course he's not so mysterious here, because I'm trying to take the mystery away. But the as for the past I have planned for him and the organization and the Miyano sisters... you'd swear I was either a sadist or a writer for some cheesy soap opera.

Review how you like, as long as it's intelligent. I'd rather not have, "OMG THIS SUCKS." when I could have, "This isn't very good because ." Praises, criticism and corrections are all welcome.


End file.
